1. Technical Field
An improved holder for supporting a flexible bag and enabling the bag to be connected to a pump of a multiple fluid dispensing system is disclosed. The holder enables the flexible bag to be supported in a vertical or substantially vertical position while the bag is connected to a pump. As a result, fluid within the bag is more effectively utilized with less waste. Shelving systems incorporating the enclosed holders and a fluid dispensing system incorporating the disclosed holders and shelving system are also disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiple pump dispensing systems have been used in the paint industry. Specifically, a dispensing system incorporating multiple pumps dispensing viscous fluids, such as paint colorant, from flexible packages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,298, owned by the assignee of the present application. Typically, such systems include piston pumps mounted on a rotary turntable with each pump coupled to the flexible package containing a viscous fluid, such as a colorant. The turntable, with the pumps and packages mounted thereon, is rotated until the desired pump and package is disposed over the container to be filled. A control system is utilized to rotate the table and control the amount of material dispensed from the packages by the pumps. Linear-type dispensing systems are also known.
Further, other paint dispensing systems are known wherein the pumps and flexible packages are stationary and the pumps are connected to a manifold by a plurality of hoses. In such a system, the container may also be stationary and disposed below the manifold or, in more advance systems such as that described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/844,166, filed on May 12, 2004, the container may be held in a holder which pivots between a dispense and a closed position so that the nozzles passing through the manifold remain covered when the machine is not in use. Another type of design is disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/696,923 where the pumps and packages remain stationary with the pumps connected to a manifold and wherein the container is connected to a rotary turntable disposed below the manifold. The turntable is rotated until the container is in alignment with a nozzle in fluid communication with the desired flexible package. Ingredients are dispensed one at a time and the entire operation is controlled by a programmable controller. Application Ser. Nos. 10/844,166 and 10/696,923 are incorporated herein by reference.
Some currently available multiple fluid dispensers utilize nutating pumps and a computer control system to control the pumps. Nutating pumps have a piston which is positioned inside of a housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet. The piston simultaneously slides axially and rotates inside of the housing. Existing nutating pumps can be operated by rotating the piston through a full 360° rotation and corresponding linear travel of the piston. The piston operation results in a specific amount of fluid pumped by the nutating pump with each revolution. Accordingly, the amount of fluid pumped for any given nutating pump is limited to multiples of the specific volume. If a smaller volume of fluid is desired, then a smaller sized nutating pump is used or manual calibration adjustments are made to the pump and controller.
For example, in paint colorants, a minimum dispense can be about 1/256th of a fluid ounce. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,540,486 and 6,398,513 disclose improvements to nutating pump technology which provide for more accurate dispensing of paint colorants and other fluids such as hair dyes and cosmetics applications. Both of these patents are commonly assigned with this application and are incorporated herein by reference.
The multiple fluid dispensing technology originally developed for paint has found application in cosmetics, hair dye and food industries. For example, not all cosmetic products are universally applicable. Consumers having dry, oily or normal skin may require treatment products especially formulated for their particular condition. Hair products including shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes and permanent wave solutions are all quite sensitive to individual characteristics of the treated hair. No generic formula fits all types. Even more complicated are color cosmetics. A rainbow of shades are necessary to meet public demand. Stores find it a significant problem to stock all possible variations of a particular color cosmetic.
To address these problems, point of sale cosmetic dispensing machines have been developed. EP 0 443 741 discloses a formulation machine for preparing cosmetically functional products. The machine includes a plurality of containers for storing various cosmetic ingredients. An input mechanism is provided for entering into a computer specific criteria representative of a customer's needs. A series of instruction sets are then sent from the computer in response to the specific input criteria to a dispensing mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,262 describes an automatic cosmetic dispensing system for blending selected additives into a cosmetic base. A similar system is described in German Patent 41 10 299 with the further element of a facial sensor.
Other systems involve a skin analyzer for reading skin properties, a programmable device receiving the reading and correlating same with a foundation formula, and a formulation machine. Components of the formula held in a series of reservoirs within the machine are dosed into a receiving bottle and blended therein. These systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,622,692 and 5,785,960. Because the systems disclosed in the '692 and '960 patents suffer from relatively poor precision, nutating pump technology was applied to improve the precision of the system as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,366.
Certain problems are associated with the above-cited prior art in terms of the dispense functions. Specifically, the '692, '960 and '366 patents all dispense fluid through a single manifold disposed above the container or vial. As a result, specially designed and miniaturized nozzles and manifolds must be designed to accommodate the large variety of ingredients that may be used in any one cosmetics preparation. For high quality cosmetics products, to accommodate for a wide variety of skin types, a dispensing machine should preferably be able to accommodate an excess of twenty different ingredients even though only several ingredients may be used for a specific formula. Thus, the stationary manifold and nozzle design is impractical.
In the multiple fluid dispensing systems described above, the use of flexible bags for dispensing components such as colorants and dyes has become very popular. Manufacturers appreciate the bags because they are easy to fill and are relatively flat and therefore easy to package and ship. Retailers like the bags because they are compact and therefore easy to store. The bags have been previously used on rotary turntables as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,298. The bags have also proven useful in stationary systems such as that illustrated in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/844,166.
However, there are certain drawbacks to currently available dispenser designs that dispense fluids contained in flexible bags. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,298 requires the use of a hard outer shell to properly support the bag on the turntable. The outer shell consumes space and adds to packaging costs. Further, the effective diameter of the turntable must be increased to accommodate for actuator levers used to mount and dismount the bags disposed within the outer shells.
One advancement over this design is found in application Ser. No. 10/844,166. However, in this design, the stationary bags are disposed horizontally, or lengthwise with the end wall of the bag that includes the outlet port being disposed relatively vertically and connected to the staggered pumps. In this design, when the bag is empty, a substantial quantity of fluid will be disposed along the lower side edge of the bag that rests on the bottom wall of the supporting tray or holder. Retailers have complained that this configuration results in substantial waste. On the other hand, the configuration disclosed in said application is extremely space efficient and therefore the machine itself is small enough to be suitable for retail environments.
Therefore, a new design is needed for a multiple dispensing system that takes advantage of the benefits provided by dispensing fluids from flexible bags but which overcomes the drawbacks of currently available designs and which still provides a space efficient design.